Such a cabinet is known having at least two swing doors linked to a cabinet body, which are jointly connected to a connector movable in a guide, and with a spring unit, to which force is applied to both doors for automatic closing of the doors, e.g. in the event of a fire.
As a rule, such cabinets and/or safety cabinets are used to store safety-related products, such as chemicals, flammable liquids, etc. It is for this reason that automatic means must be provided for closing the doors in the event of a fire. This automatic closing is normally completely different from the normal operation during opening and closing of the cabinet's doors.
In the state of the art according to DE 20 2004 004 855 the spring applying force is provided along the guide for the connector and/or is integrated in the guide. The spring is a scroll spring which is directly connected to the connector. As a result, the scroll spring or the spring unit follows every movement of the connector and consequently every closing movement and opening movement of the doors. This can be problematic as the scroll spring thus takes on a, as it were, two-fold function.
On the one hand, it provides that force is applied to the doors in question in their opened position in the direction of the closed position for assisting closing. On the other hand, if however the known scroll spring also in case of fire (closed operation)—and here especially—provides for automatic closing action and the closing of the cabinet. In the last case, a fixing element is realized which is connected to the cabinet body by a connector which melts in a fire, such as solder. This results in an automatic closing of the doors in case of fire because the fixing element no longer keeps the doors open.
The described double function of the scroll spring and/or the known spring unit can conceivably result in case of fire to the spring unit no longer functioning reliably because the scroll spring and/or the fixing element and/or connector exhibit fatigue due to continuous operation. This represents a serious safety problem.